Good Luck to Kittel in his new life chapter. So it turned out to be that his cycling mindset was not there anymore- so it kind of hints why he began to fade so inexplicably on his last years...... can't force the body to do things when the mind is dictating something else...

In hindsight, he didn't attract all that much love, did he? I know this is incredibly harsh but I just remember kind of muted admiration after yet another impressive, inevitable and yet unremarkable victory. I wonder if that was part of the reason he didn't find cycling as encouraging a community as others do.

I checked the rider thread index, and most sprinters’ threads are between 6 and 9 pages; with a few running less. The 2 significant outliers are, obviously, Cav with over 100, and Sagan who is closing in on 200 pages. Kittel is about the same level as Kristoff, Greipel, Degenkolb etc.

I checked the rider thread index, and most sprinters’ threads are between 6 and 9 pages; with a few running less. The 2 significant outliers are, obviously, Cav with over 100, and Sagan who is closing in on 200 pages. Kittel is about the same level as Kristoff, Greipel, Degenkolb etc.

Fan base and home country matter. It is the same for any other world class rider from germany. Imagine Buchmann being from the netherlands,belgium or france. There would have been a lot more hype. Same for Schachmann in the spring.

In hindsight, he didn't attract all that much love, did he? I know this is incredibly harsh but I just remember kind of muted admiration after yet another impressive, inevitable and yet unremarkable victory. I wonder if that was part of the reason he didn't find cycling as encouraging a community as others do.

Even in Germany, nobody cared about him. I'd say despite Germany being a country of sprinters and time trialists I'd argue that all the broader public cares about are GT GC riders, especially at the TdF. Probably Buchmann's success in this year's Tour has received more coverage in the media than Greipel's and Kittel's stage wins combined.

Compared to Cav and Sagan they aren't as out spoken or open about things which gives nothing to talk about that adds to less posts. Nothing you can really say besides how their performance is doing. Plus from a German rider standpoint, I don't think their riders are that outspoken compared to other nations.

If only there were more 50 km pan flat stages he would have been one of the all time greats. Fourteen stages in the Tour is a lot. He was my favourite sprinter of the past decade, because he looked like Dolph Lundgren in Rocky IV.

Fan base and home country matter. It is the same for any other world class rider from germany. Imagine Buchmann being from the netherlands,belgium or france. There would have been a lot more hype. Same for Schachmann in the spring.

I think that often a handful of athletes will get the most of the attention on a sports forum. Sagan is one of them. Cav was one them. Cav was definitely helped by being from a country where cycling was gaining a lot of attention rather than losing it.